A centuries-long conflict between Hindus and Muslims in the ancient city of Ayodhya has had a profound influence on Indian life and politics and continues today. WSJ's Paul Beckett reports.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... the banks of the surly River north India ... the people of a legit but it did in the business ... much as they have for centuries ... life here is a world away from India's rapidly changing cities ... during the glitzy malls are trendy restaurants ... instead ... the ancient temples ... and those ... he lived at ... a time considered truly by Hindus ... is a city defined by its past ... and on to that story is a centuries long bitter dispute between Hindus and Muslims ... over a mosque built here ... nearly five hundred years ago ... the conflict escalated in nineteen forty nine ... and continues today ... that was the center of the dispute was all about remastered ... that was built in fifteen twenty eight ... many local Hindus claims ... to the mausoleum built on the road and other Hindu temple had been built to review their own God ... Brown ... we believe that the very sight for the last it ... was Rams earthquakes ... the nineteen forty nine a group of local side is a Hindu holy man ... decided to try and take the mosque back vandalism ... well we discovered in our reporting ... was a carefully crafted plan by local officials and influential sightings ... to protect the statue ... of Lord Ram ... into the mosque and the dead of night ... and this is a replica ... of the session ... the dispute turned in terms of Hindus and Muslims against each other ... the size of the Barron's of legal system which can you do have the right to the secret site ... I also know two trials still be a testimony to the religious divide ... more than forty years after the Rams that too is placed in the mosque ... the crisis reached boiling point ... Hindu activists to organize a mass movement to push for a temple to romp to be built on the site with the mosques did ... they fell the government wasn't listening to them ... so they could to match into the red hands ... building around Temple ... meant destroying the market ... and that's exactly what happened on December six ... nineteen ninety two ... there's a low point in relations between India to August religions ... I was a blow to India's democratic experiment ... this December in India March the twentieth anniversary of the day the Babbit Masjid was torn down ... the last two decades has seen several waves of deadly violence between Hindus and Muslims ... from Mumbai to Gujarat ... the dispute in a live jazz been a motivating factor in many of them ... the issue has also forced Indians to reflect on what kind of country they want to live and ... one Dalmatian by Hindus ... who won the respects all religions equally which is what the nation's founding fathers had hoped for ... it is also made in broken political careers ... Gildan has ... played ... a major role in the terms of no less than five Indian ministers starting with Joe on him ... India's first prime minister after independence ... including his grandson ... you can be in the nineteen eighties ... in fact dismissed again be to politicize the issue ... by seeking to appeal to him to voters by supporting the call for the construction of a ram temple ... near to the mosque ... but his plan backfires ... there was a big part of play was president of office ... nineteen canai ... he owed his impact on India's political scene has been immense ... the fractured Elantra along religious lines as it still is today ... it also gave rise to a powerful Hindu nationalist party ... the BJP ... which is now are the main opposition party in Parliament ... today I e legit still waiting for resolution ... the legal battle over what happens to the site continues ... it's now in the hands of the Supreme Court ... but until we added to the aam passes found ... the time to Hindus and Muslims will remain divided ... this was closely involved in the dispute to lithium from the lawyers ... I know in the third generation of family members ... who dedicated themselves to this issue ... as a drama that is extraordinary and it's true that in scale ... and ... as kosher ... it all